When I got my rats, I asked the pet store owner, "Can you get rat food? Like lab blocks?"

She said "No." I thought that was strange, but still, since this was my best chance to find them, I asked her to write down my number and check again.

That was weeks ago, and I hadn't heard anything. Well, yesterday, I went back, thinking maybe she'd lost my number or something. This time, a different person was there and said, "Someone else was asking about that, what is that?"

o_O "It's rat food."

"Oh! Is that those little square pellet things? That are in the boxes with them when they ship them?"

"Yeah, that's probably lab blocks."

"Oh! Well, yeah, I can probably get those."

So, she's supposed to try to get some in stock for me, and hopefully they will be there next week. I guess she thought that stuff was packing peanuts or something. Fingers crossed that they won't forget. I'll be going back next Friday to see if they got them.

Do lab blocks go bad, or have an expiration date? I don't remember them having one when I fed them to the rats I had before, but I'm thinking I might want to buy in serious bulk here. I don't know how long this supplier will last and I don't have a lot of confidence in the reliability of them.

Total brainfart, I didn't think to ask about the brand of lab blocks they would get in. Okay, when I call back Monday morning, what brands should I ask them to try to get? Harlan Tekland sounds like it's not gonna be an option, if they have to have an order of at least $1000, and it and Mazuri aren't really good from what I see in these comments. I'd like to have a few different brands to request, in case they can't get 2014 formula.

I once asked a local small-chain petfood supplier if they could get Harlan Teklad. A week later, they called back and said that Harlan wouldn't sell to them.

Harland Teklad is known for only selling in super-big bulk. My local rat fancy does occasional orders and they hafta be over $1000 before Harlan will give them the time of day. Considering that a 33lb bag of food is only about $12 these-days, it takes -alot- of orders.

Mazuri, however, is a slightly different case, since they're owned by purina. I furget how we ordered it, but it was a smaller order and was delivered to a feed store for us to pick up.

The Houston location of Harlan in 2005 used to request that the orders be $500 to be picked up in a truck at their location, or $800 to be delivered to a place with a loading dock.

These days, our rat group had to put together a $1000 order to be picked up. (or it may of been delivered, I'm not sure since she didn't say) What helps float this is people buying Harlan's diamond soft or aspen bedding in addition to their huge bags of lab blocks.

Harlan is made with slightly better stuff. Wheat millings and ground corn as the third ingredient.

Both are better in the protein department than Kaytee or other petstore found ones. Both are chock-full of vitamins & minerals. Mazuri smells more like food than Harlan. Harlan has slightly better base to deliver the vitamins & minerals.

Personally, I used lab blocks as a way to deliver the vitamins & minerals, and used a Suebee style diet as a main, with a bit of high quality dog food. Also, because we ate dinner at home almost every night, my guys also got dinner leftovers. Rotisserie chicken bones, rice, peas, ect.. If it lacked milk or anything that might not agree with them, they got it. In the wild, rats foraged for food to eat and got a little bit of different stuff everyday. Feeding lab blocks 100% is prolly about as fun as living in a lab.